This invention relates to means for anchoring a flexible covering, such as a sheet, pad, and/or combinations of the same, to the surface of a waterbed.
The type of bed consisting of a fluid-containing mattress mounted in a frame, commonly referred to as a "waterbed", has gained relative widespread publicity in recent years, primarily due to a claimed increased comfort characteristic as compared to conventional beds. Such waterbeds, however, have failed to achieve the predicted general acceptance and usage because of several drawbacks of same inherent in their design. Two of such drawbacks have been particularly bothersome: (a) an inability to suitably anchor a covering, such as a sheet or pad, over the top of the fluid-containing mattress, and (b) a tendancy of the fluid-bearing mattress to occasionally leak.
To remedy the leakage problem, it has been suggested and now apparently generally adopted in waterbed designs to locate and provide an impervious liner in the bottom of the bed frame beneath the fluid-confining mattress. While the utilization of such a supplemental liner has solved the leakage problem, excepting in cases of total mattress failure, since such liners usually are formed of smooth-surfaced plastic films, the use of such liners have served to further aggravate the problem of mattress cover movement due to an inability of a waterbed conventional design to submit to attempts to "tuck" the edges of a sheet or pad covering under the mattress as do conventional mattresses. Hence, it remains common to waterbeds, particularly those having plastic liners, that coverings, such as sheets and pads, fail to remain satisfactorily in place due to the edges slipping out from between the frame and mattress of such beds.
Various techniques, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,024,050; 3,011,182; 3,179,958; and 4,040,133 have been proposed to assist in anchoring a covering such as a sheet to a mattress, but have not been totally suitable for use with waterbeds due to problems in adapting the same to fluid-containing mattresses, difficulties in installing same to existing beds in which the mattress is already filled with fluid, and/or requiring the utilization of expensive and/or inconvenient modifications to the bed covers, e.g., sheets.
Accordingly, a search has continued in the art for suitable and versatile means for anchoring coverings, such as sheets and pads, to the surface of waterbeds.